London Lightning: Doug Herring Jr. wastes no time in making an impact in his first game back

He only had two practices the last two days since re-joining the Lightning after a stint in France and hadn’t gone through a new coach’s system yet.

But the 6-foot-3 guard still came off the bench in his London return and immediately knocked down four of his initial five shots for 10 first-quarter points, including a long buzzer-beating three-pointer, to help the Bolts blow out the Windsor Express 129-106 Friday at Budweiser Gardens.

“Very impressive,” London coach Keith Vassell said. “He hasn’t played with the group, but he made fantastic reads and did it at pace. He was able to hit guys for open shots and shot the ball well when he was on.

“He took control of the team from the moment the ball went into his hands. It was great.”

Herring Jr. was a sparkplug in London’s best offensive performance to date and he was a key contributor to the club’s title run last season.

The Lightning (6-5) won their fourth straight National Basketball League of Canada game and they’re now 29-1 all-time in the regular season with the heady guard from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., in their lineup.

He finished with 12 points, five rebounds and four assists and made an on-court statement that he’s ready for more responsibility.

“We will take it one step at a time,” Vassell said. “What I’ve tried to do to this point is make decisions based on our development. He came in and raised the level of play. Whether that means we’ll use him as a starter immediately or in the future, I haven’t made a hard-line decision.

“But I’m definitely open to the idea.”

London shot a scorching 57.5 per cent from the floor (50-of-87) and hit the century mark with a minute left in a 47-point third quarter.

They avenged a 17-point defeat in which they posted just 91 points against Windsor three weeks ago. They outscored the Express by 22 on fast breaks.

“I think we do a good job in transition. It puts pressure on teams,” Vassell said. “It’s not enough (for a foe) just to get a guy back. They need to be able to contain everybody. The hope is our half-court offence, which hasn’t been great statistically, is only going to keep getting better.

“And defensively, that we’ll be more consistent. We lose our man sometimes or forget our assignments. If we can lessen that, we can play very well (at both ends).”

The 129 points surpassed the Bolts’ previous best this year of 123 put up in a three-point loss against St. John’s on Dec. 5.

London’s Kyle Johnson posted 30 points on 11-of-18 shooting and Royce White, in his first home contest since serving a three-game suspension, buried 25 points and dished out 11 assists.

All five Lightning starters had buckets before the game was four minutes old. They forced the Express to chase them from the opening tip and the visitors couldn’t keep up with the surge.

Windsor shotjust 33 per cent rate in the first half, missing on 16 of their first 20 three-pointers.

But thanks to 6-foot-6 sharpshooter Logan Stutz (9-for-12 for 20 points in the opening two quarters), the Express hung around, whittling the London lead down to eight at the break.

But the Bolts busted out of the gate again in the third and upped their edge to 20. They finished 12-of-29 (41.4 per cent) from downtown and showed signs that this kind of performance could be more the norm than an outlier.

By knocking off each of their division opponents in their last four games, the Lightning can make the case they are the team to beat in the Central these days.

But they will have to prove it all over again with Niagara at the Bud on Saturday night.

“We play each other so many times — this is the third in two-and-a-half weeks,” Vassell said. “It’s good and bad. We won the last two (against the River Lions), but we can’t just be happy with that. All you can do is the league is be happy with your win and try to correct the things that don’t go well.”

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